NLNS: The 'Peace with Mt. Washington' Campaign
New Liberation News Service
/* ---------- "NLNS Spring 93' Supplement" ---------- */
The SEAC "Peace with Mt. Washington" Campaign
Threshold
(NLNS)--In the Northeast stands a majestic peak rising above all the rest.
At one time it was thought to be a place where Wuchosen, the Wind
Eagle, stood flapping its wings creating the winds for the lands below. At
that time, no native would every think of ascending this ominous peak.
Times changed when the first Europeans ascended the mountain
looking for precious jewels and such. The Europeans had to conquer the
mountain, and they set about doing so. In 1819, the Crawford path was
constructed, the first recreational footpath in the mountains of the U.S.
This was soon converted to a bridal path as it became fashionable to ride
horseback to the top of the mountains.
In 1852, as it became popular to get to the top, a summit house was
built. This was soon followed by another building, and then a road was
constructed. With the road came an onslaught of construction on the
summit, with a hotel, a gift shop, and finally the cog railway. Today when
you hike to the top of the tallest mountain of the northeast you are greeted
by unprepared tourists flooding off a train to take pictures of you before
they run inside to get away from the wind. Human structures on the
summit now include three large radio and television towers, a television
station, tourist center, gift shop, weather station, museum, the first summit
house, a house for the cog railway equipment, a house for the autoroad,
three large parking lots, huge oil and water drums and construction
equipment, not to mention the network of underground fuel tanks and
pipes left by the Department of Defense from their experimental stint over
the past half century. But the best part of it all is the smelly, noisy smog
producing cog railway dumping off the tourists.
The Mt. Washington cog railway was the first cog railway in the
world. Ever since July 3, 1869 when the cog first made it to the summit of
Mt. Washington, the train has been burning up one ton of coal and 1000
gallons of water every trip up the mountain. Ever since the 1930's, the
train has been taking hourly trips up the mountain for 120 days every year.
The toll on the mountain is unmeasurable scientifically, since no one ever
studied the ecology of the area before this all happened. However, many
effects are obvious when one looks at the several feet of ash and cinders
that has accumulated next to the railway for the past century plus, all the
old railroad ties from 123 years of service still up on the mountain, loads
of unburned coal, waste oil and grease from the machinery and tracks, and
to top it all off plenty of refuse from all the tourists on the train. The
railroad makes little effort to clean this up, although occasionally the local
hiking clubs try to pick up some of it.
In the 1970's when New Hampshire air pollution laws came into
effect, a provision was quickly passed to protect the cog from
enforcement; so to this day, the cog burns one ton of soft (bituminous - the
high sulfer content) coal every trip - up to 15 times a day for 120 days of
the year. Whether or not they are in compliance with federal laws is
unknown, for they are a very special case (which the law was not written
for), and no one has been able to figure out if there is a loophole or not; it
seems very likely that if in fact they are not in compliance, no one will be
making them comply soon (hopefully we'll be changing that). The
cumulative effect of this pollution may be paltry in comparison to any coal
burning energy facility or even all the pollution from the interstate
highway twenty miles to the west, but the totally unregulated cog pollution
is blown directly into the Great Gulf Wilderness by the prevailing winds.
There are no screens or filters between the burning coal and emitted ash
except a two millimeter mesh bonnet to prevent large pieces of burning
coal from spewing out and causing forest fires (although there are
common small fires from smaller burning pieces of coal, they usually get
them under control quickly). Hikers often complain of the smell from
miles away in the Great Gulf Wilderness area--what is supposed to be a
class I airshed.
By the way, the septic system for the summit buildings also
empties out into the Great Gulf Wilderness--but that's a whole other issue.
The autoroad, a privately owned partially paved road also violates
the mountain. Anyone can drive up the mountain for under twenty bucks
(and the cost of ruining your breaks or clutch), many do, and thus the
maintenance needs for the road is enormous. They dump enormous
amounts of chemicals on the road to prevent it from getting too dusty on
dry days, and the erosion of sand off the road and onto the fragile tundra is
overwhelming. They even have an annual autorace up the mountain every
year which sprays several tons of sand and dirt off the road onto the fragile
tundra in less than a day.
All of this happens on one of the most fragile ecosystems in the
whole northeast. The top of Mt. Washington holds one of the only true
alpine ecosystems in all the east coast. This is the last stand of this
ecosystem, and it has been enormously degraded by overdevelopment and
lack of respect. This has gone on long enough, and so SEACer's in the
Northeast are taking a stand.
Last summer we held two demonstrations on the mountain, and we
hope to hold more this summer and start a movement with local residents
to take back the mountain from greedy, self-serving businessmen profiting
from people's desire to be at the highest point in the Northeast. The
demonstrations were simple banner and pamphleting presences with some
music and fun. We were able to get many people to not ride the cog
railway, and a couple to decide not to drive up. But our efforts have just
begun.
Our vision for Mt Washington looks like this:
THE COG RAILWAY: Stop use of coal or any other fossil fuel. Clean up
areas surrounding the track (this includes the removal of all former pipes,
ties, machinery, and other garbage). Stop grease and oil leakage to the
surrounding mountainside.
If they are to continue to carry people up the mountain, they must
power the train electrically, with a power source located at the bottom of
the mountain. The best source would be solar power or some other
renewable source that could be an example throughout the world. If this is
not financially feasible then the railway should be shut down, the bottom
converted to a museum, and the track removed leaving a hiking trail. This
way the historical aspects of the cog can be preserved without degrading
the environment or the vacations of the tens of thousands of hiking visitors
to the mountain.
THE AUTO ROAD: Stop public vehicle use by switching to mass transit
only--such as could happen with the current stagecoach (van) system.
Prevent road runoff from affecting sensitive surrounding alpine and
subalpine areas. This includes the elimination of chemical use on the road,
and stopping any further widening of the road to allow more traffic.
THE SUMMIT: The top of Mt. Washington must be managed in a more
sensitive way. Public ownership by a public entity oriented toward
protection would be a start, seeing that all surrounding land is owned by
the Forest Service but the summit is owned in parts by: Dartmouth
College, the New Hampshire Dept. of Parks, the Mt. Washington Railway
Company, the Mt. Washington Autoroad, and the U.S. Department of
Defense (including the navy and the airforce). Many buildings should be
removed, leaving only what is absolutely necessary for the current weather
monitoring and refuge to visitors. Restoration of the severely degraded
areas surrounding the summit must be accomplished and some human
traffic control plan must be established to prevent trampling abuse on the
vegetated areas.
If we were able to manage this intensively used mountain for
sustainability, it could serve as an example of how to manage many of the
other overcrowded areas in the Northeast forest.
Unfortunately, unless this campaign gets bigger fast, we may have
another big problem on our hands. The Autoroad company plans to build a
large hotel right at the base of the mountain. There was a successful effort
to get them to sell their land to the forest service, but somewhere in the
compromise, they sold some of the land, (keeping rights to manage a
cross-country ski area in the valley) and develop a hotel on the rest. So
basically this deal gave them the money to develop the hotel--since they
probably would never have developed the rest anyway. This hotel must be
stopped; there is already enough development hurting the visual beauty of
the mountain landscape, and this is in the middle of a national forest area
that is supposed to be a refuge for the other species of this mixed Northern
Hardwood forest.
Speak out, you can write the Mt. Washington Autoroad and tell
them what you think about their plans for a hotel. It is still in the planning
stages, so letters now may dissuade them from going through with their
plans. Write: The Mt. Washington Autoroad, P.O. Box 278, Gorham, N.H.
03581.
Threshold is the magazine of SEAC, the Student Environmental Action
Coalition; they can be reached at se...@igc.org.
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